“With the current economic situation, getting hired seems like a big accomplishment for college graduates,” said Justin Shane who graduated this May from the University of Arizona.

Even before the economy took a down turn, Shane was concerned about getting a job after college. He, like many students, thought one perk of joining a fraternity would be getting a leg up in the job market. However, he found out it isn’t quite that easy.

“When I first joined my fraternity, networking with alumni for job opportunities was a huge positive,” Shane said. “When I was a junior in college, I started to network with FIJI alumni.  Quickly, I realized how difficult it was to find alumni that were in my field and in a hiring position.  From this problem, the idea forugreekrow.comevolved.”

Shane teamed up with Adam Carr and Chris Risi, fellow May graduates from U of A, to launch ugreekrow.com. They created a social and job-networking site that aims to solve what Shane experienced.  They also set out to tighten the Greek community by providing a forum for undergrads to talk to each other and alumni, even if they are not looking for a job. 

“Now members of fraternities and sororities will have one place to go to network and apply for jobs,” Shane said. “Undergraduates and graduates can use the website to leverage the fact that they were in a fraternity or sorority for job opportunities.”

Ugreekrow.com members will be able to post resumes and browse job listing from their chapter’s alumni as well as other employers. Undergraduate users will also be able to manage every day chapter functions, like philanthropies, socials and meetings online.

It will launch first at the University of Arizona in August and soon spread to other campuses with thriving Greek communities around the country. By the beginning of 2009, they hope to have 16 ugreekrow.com campuses.

Until then, they are putting the finishing touches on their website, planning a 6-month promotional trip around the country and talking to employers about using the site despite the fact that they aren’t hiring as much. 

“We have found that employers are hiring less due to the current state of the economy,“ Carr said, “Ugreekrow.com is providing employers a more efficient way to evaluate potential employees using our resume databases.”

Employers will be able to post job listings and browse resumes for free but if they want a candidate’s contact information they have to pay. Students, on the other hand, will be able to access everything for free.

“During the last four years, we’ve had great experiences in Greek life, so we wanted to find a way to help ensure that everyone who ‘goes Greek’ gets the most out of it,” Risi said. “We thought that one way to do this was to create a network, specifically for Greeks, where individuals and chapters can socialize, manage daily operations, and network for jobs by taking advantage of the large Greek community.”